Secret Marriage: The CEO's Pampered Wife

"You’re going to drag your ailing body back just to see her?"

"Don’t worry. I’ll just watch her from a distance. I won’t let Nina see me."

Justin Sullivan pushed past Selena Sheridan and ducked into the car. "I will be back."

This was the promise Justin Sullivan made to her before he left.

Selena Sheridan’s eyes instantly turned red. ’Who needs his stupid promises?’ she thought. ’Even if he dies on that plane, it has nothing to do with me.’

After Justin Sullivan’s car drove away, Selena Sheridan crouched on the ground and burst into tears.

Georgia Thorne ached all over. She wanted to sleep but couldn’t, her head throbbed violently. Still, she didn’t want to open her eyes—she found that she couldn’t, that it would take a tremendous amount of effort.

Elliot Sheridan kept vigil by the bedside, his gaze fixed on Georgia Thorne, not missing a single flicker of movement.

He saw Georgia’s eyes flutter open, then shut again.

It happened so fast that Elliot even wondered if he was hallucinating.

"Georgia? Georgia!" Elliot called her name excitedly, his voice close to her ear. But once her eyes were closed, Georgia showed no reaction at all.

It was as if her opening her eyes had just been a figment of his imagination.

Elliot pressed the call button for a doctor.

On the same day, two members of the Sheridan family were admitted to the same hospital.

One was Elliot’s younger brother, Aidan Sheridan, who was in a coma following emergency surgery. The other was Elliot’s wife, Georgia Thorne.

She’d opened her eyes only to fall asleep again, completely unresponsive to his voice.

Georgia had been in a car accident. A passerby had called for help, and she’d been brought to the hospital.

He hadn’t seen the accident happen, nor had he seen the sight of Georgia being struck, falling to the ground covered in blood.

He had been waiting anxiously outside Aidan’s operating room when his phone rang with Georgia’s name. He’d assumed she had arrived at the hospital and was lost.

But the voice on the other end belonged to a stranger. "Hello, are you Georgia Thorne’s husband?"

The unfamiliar voice made Elliot’s head swim. "Yes, I am," he replied. "Who is this?"

"Hello, I’m a nurse at XX Hospital. Your wife is on her way to the hospital right now. Please come over immediately."

He hadn’t seen the accident or her injuries at the scene, but he had seen Georgia on a gurney, being wheeled into an operating room.

Standing at the door, the anxiety he’d been suppressing surged through him, his chest tightening until he could barely breathe.

Helpless. Powerless...

The most important person in his life was inside, fighting for her life, and all he could do was wait outside, staring into space.

Elliot paced anxiously in front of the operating room doors, overcome by a feeling he’d never experienced before.

Before she left this morning, she had deliberately chosen a yellow coat and a white silk scarf.

She had drawn the cartoon characters on the white silk scarf herself in her spare time.

But when he’d looked at it earlier, the white scarf was stained crimson with blood, the original pattern completely obscured.

He clenched his fists tighter, his eyes fixed on the red light above the operating room. The tension inside him coiled tighter and tighter, stretched to its breaking point.

’She was fine when we spoke this afternoon,’ he thought. ’How could this have happened so suddenly?’

Elliot grabbed a nearby nurse. "Excuse me, Georgia Thorne, the patient in this operating room—where did her accident happen?"

"Just a moment, I’ll check the records for you." The nurse looked down and checked the latest files. "It was on the road in front of the Grandview Hotel."

"Thank you!" Elliot took a deep breath, turned, and pulled out his phone to call Owen Sawyer.

"I want you to pull the security footage from the front of the Grandview Hotel. No, get me all the footage from the entire area!"

Owen Sawyer didn’t even have a chance to ask why before Elliot hung up.

Just then, the red light above the operating room went out.

’Why the sudden need for security footage?’ Owen mused. ’Now I have to go find someone at the Department of Transportation.’

’It’s tough being the big boss’s assistant. I have to do everything myself.’

Owen Sawyer didn’t dare to delay and personally headed to the Department of Transportation.

Back at the hospital, Georgia was wheeled out of the operating room and transferred to a regular ward, where she remained asleep.

The doctor said that in addition to multiple scrapes and bruises, she had also suffered a severe blow to the back of her head, causing significant bleeding.

Elliot listened to the doctor’s rambling explanation, his brow furrowed. "What are you trying to say? Just give me the bottom line!"

He slammed his hand on the desk, making the files on it jump. The middle-aged doctor, intimidated by the dark aura radiating from Elliot, adjusted his glasses and stammered, "A-actually, there are no major issues. She just needs plenty of rest and recuperation after she wakes up."

’You really can’t afford to cross the rich these days,’ the doctor thought. ’They fly off the handle over anything, just like a mob boss.’

Elliot kept watch at Georgia’s bedside until midnight. In the middle of the night, Sharon Ennis called to tell him that Aidan was out of danger.

She then asked him, "Elliot, where did you run off to in such a hurry?"

Sharon Ennis had been right there when Elliot took the call, witnessing firsthand the panic on her son’s face. He had then rushed off, ignoring their calls for him to wait.

"Mom, something happened to Georgia. I’ll tell you about it later." Elliot pinched the bridge of his nose, glancing at the peacefully sleeping Georgia. He kept his voice low. "I have something to take care of. I’m hanging up now."

The next morning, Sharon Ennis called again. "Elliot, what on earth happened to Georgia?"

Her son’s voice had been so exhausted last night that she hadn’t pressed him for details.

Elliot hadn’t slept all night. "She was in a car accident," he said. "She’s out of danger now."

"A car accident? How could she have gotten into a car accident?!" Sharon Ennis shot up from her chair in shock. "What hospital are you at? I’m coming over right now!"

"We’re in the same hospital. Next building over, second floor."

Sharon Ennis put down her phone and looked at James Sheridan. "You watch Aidan. Call me if he wakes up."

"Georgia was in an accident?" James Sheridan stood up too. "I’ll go with you."

"But what about Aidan..."

"Don’t worry. He won’t be waking up anytime soon. Besides, the caregiver is with him."

Aidan’s surgery had lasted nearly nine hours, pushing his body to its absolute limit. Even after the anesthetic wore off, he wouldn’t be waking up for a while.

When Sharon Ennis and James Sheridan arrived at Georgia’s room, they saw Elliot through the small window in the door. He was sitting perfectly still by the bed, his eyes fixed on Georgia.

"Elliot?" Sharon Ennis and James Sheridan entered quietly. "Has Georgia woken up yet?"

"Mom, Dad." Elliot looked up. After a sleepless night, his eyes were laced with red. "She hasn’t woken up."

Georgia had lost a lot of blood, and her face was drained of all color, as pale as a corpse.

Sharon sat by the bed, watching Georgia, while James called Elliot out into the hallway. "How on earth did she get into a car accident?"

"I don’t know." Elliot rubbed his temples. Just as he was about to say more, a call came in from Owen Sawyer.

"I think I found what you were looking for." Owen’s voice was strained. He had seen the surveillance footage and was so shocked he was almost speechless. No wonder Elliot’s tone had been so frantic, like he was ready to kill someone.

"Send the footage to me!"

Owen replayed the recording, his voice tightening. "Elliot, I think that car... I think it hit Georgia on purpose."

Elliot’s brow tightened. He immediately borrowed a nurse’s computer, logged into his email, and carefully watched the footage.

The street was quiet, with few people crossing. The camera angle was from behind Georgia.

When the crosswalk light turned green, a black car didn’t slow down—instead, it accelerated toward Georgia. She was on the phone at the time, and by the time she realized the car was speeding toward her, it was far too late to get out of the way.

Her body was thrown more than a meter by the impact. It was raining that night, so the pool of red blood that must have been spreading beneath her wasn’t visible in the footage.

You could only see a few passersby rush over and call for help after she collapsed.

The car had definitely hit Georgia on purpose.

That was Elliot’s first reaction after watching the video.

’Who would deliberately hit Georgia? An enemy of hers, or an enemy of mine?’

’The latter is more likely.’

He’d been in the business world for years. He’d ruined companies and acquired them, making more than a few enemies along the way.

’Who would be so bold as to go after Georgia?’

His temples began to throb. As he thought about it, the most likely culprit was Erin Irving.

James Sheridan watched the video as well. "Elliot, that car... it hit Georgia on purpose!"

"I don’t know for sure yet."

"A business rival?" James asked in a low voice.

’Perhaps,’ Elliot thought.

There were too many uncertainties right now. As for who the enemy was, he needed more clues.

For example, the car’s license plate number, its make and model, and where it went after hitting Georgia...

The fact that Georgia had been hit couldn’t get out. Elliot suppressed the news.

Georgia woke up in the afternoon.

The world around her felt noisy, and a constant buzzing in her head, like a trapped bee, gave her no peace.

She opened her eyes and saw a nurse in a white uniform performing a routine check. She twitched her fingers.

"How did I get here?" she murmured. She tried to sit up, but every movement sent a sharp, intense pain through her body.

The nurse quickly but gently pushed her back down. "Don’t move! You’re still on an IV drip."

’An IV?’

She glanced at the back of her hand. Sure enough, there was a needle taped there.

She felt awful all over. ’Did I end up in the hospital just from getting caught in the rain?’

’But why don’t I have a sore throat or feel dizzy? Why does my whole body ache like it’s been run over by a truck?’

"Excuse me," Georgia said, the words taking effort. "When can I leave the hospital?"

"You can’t possibly be discharged now. You were just in a car accident. You’ll need to be under observation for at least a week," the nurse said. "Oh, right, since you’re awake, I’ll go get Dr. Chase to examine you."